Rain, Rain Go Away - RAIN FACTS For a Rainy Day

It's April and yes that means rain. As a matter of fact, it was raining when I wrote this. The rain has been the inspiration for my 'Relaxing Sounds' Rain video creation and for some rain facts for a rainy day...

Did You Know...

Not all raindrops are created equally. Rain occurs on other moons and planets but in a different way we experience on Earth.

For instance, on Venus, the rain is made up of sulfuric acid but due to intense heat, it evaporates before it even reaches the surface! And even more interesting, on a extrasolar planet some 5,000 light years away, planet OGLE-TR-56b, is theorized to have iron rain instead of water!

On Titan, Saturn’s largest natural satellite, infrequent methane rain is thought to carve the moon’s numerous surface channels.

Back in September 2001 between 25 July to 23, the Kerala red rain phenomenon occurred. Heavy downpours of red-coloured rain fell sporadically on the southern Indian state of Kerala, staining clothes pink.

Following a light microscopy examination, it was initially thought that the rains were coloured by fallout from a hypothetical meteor burst, but a study commissioned by the Government of India concluded that the rains had been coloured by airborne spores from locally prolific terrestrial algae.

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There’s actually a scientifically-proven way to get less wet in the rain. Run! Yes, the question of whether it is better to run or walk in the rain in order to get less wet has been scrutinized by the scientific community over the years. Even the show Mythbusters have done their own experiments on the subject.

As the YouTube Channel MinutePhysics explains, regardless of the extra raindrops you will run into, the faster you get out of the rain, the drier you’ll be!

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Petrichor, is the name given for that earthy scent we experience when rain falls on dry soil. The word is constructed from Greek, petra, meaning ‘stone’, + ichor, the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology.

In 2015, MIT scientists used high-speed cameras to record how the scent moves into the air. The tests involved approximately 600 experiments on 28 different surfaces, including engineered materials and soil samples. When a raindrop hits a porous surface, small bubbles form that float to the surface and release aerosols. Such aerosols carry the scent as well as bacteria and viruses from the soil. Raindrops that move at a slower rate tend to produce more aerosols; this serves as an explanation for why the petrichor is more common after light rains.

Some scientists believe that humans appreciate the rain scent because ancestors may have relied on rainy weather for survival.

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Who gets the most rain on Earth? Well, you might think it’s your own town but the village of Mawsynram in Meghalaya State, India is said to be the wettest place on Earth.

The average annual rainfall for Mawsynram is around 11,871 mm (roughly over 430 inches of rain). Located only 15 km away is Cherrapunji which is said to be the second wettest place on earth receiving about 11,777 mm rain annually.

Ironically, despite being the second wettest place on Earth, Cherrapunji residents face water shortages in winter when no rain falls at all for months at a time.

(Video snapshot) Relaxing Sounds: Rain with Light Thunderstorm (Over 1 Hour)

During the wet season, incessant rains lash the region, sometimes for 15-21 days at a stretch.

As for Mawsynram, meteorologists say Mawsynram’s location, close to Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal is the reason it receives so much rain.

“What happens is that whenever any moisture gathers over the Bay of Bengal, it causes precipitation over Mawsynram, leading to a heavy, long monsoon season,” Sunit Das of the Indian Meteorological Department told AFP.

Quibdó, the capital of Chocó, Colombia, receives the most rain in the world among cities with over 100,000 inhabitants: 9,000 mm (354 in) per year.

So now that we’ve gotten all that rain talk out of the way, go on over and enjoy an hour of some relaxing rain sounds by clicking on that hibiscus video image above!